Sub-prime Bail Out

[DanaC]

Mmm. *nods* sounds insecure. In terms of having enough housing, we have a serious shortage of 'affordable housing' as it's usually termed. The soaring house prices over the last few years have made it very difficult for first timers to get onto the housing ladder. Developers are mainly building for the high end market, gentrifying areas that previously had fairly low house prices. Councils are responsible for ensuring that an appropriate mix of housing is developed within their borough, done through regulations on large scale developments (if you're building more than x number of houses you have to include within that 20% 'affordable housing', or some similar stricture). But, not all councils push that enough and there is plenty of room in interpretation of the term 'affordable'.

Currently in my borough, there are about 2-3000 people on waiting lists for housing association lets and the like. Bout half of them are of a socio-economic status that ten years ago would have had them on the housing ladder by now. So we have several thousand people who cannot find permanent homes, whilst at the same time we have over developed areas with houses and flats (especially flats) standing empty and unsold.